{"id":5240,"date":"2016-11-28T18:58:40","date_gmt":"2016-11-28T22:58:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/performingartsnews\/?p=5240"},"modified":"2023-03-01T18:14:19","modified_gmt":"2023-03-01T22:14:19","slug":"coffee-cantata","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/performingartsnews\/2016\/11\/28\/coffee-cantata\/","title":{"rendered":"Johann Sebastian Bach’s Coffee Cantata"},"content":{"rendered":"

Johann Sebastian Bach’s \u00a0Coffee Cantata<\/em><\/span><\/h3>\n

Anais Naharro-Murphy, soprano<\/span>
\n Matthew Lulofs, baritone<\/span>
\n Brandon McShaffrey, director<\/span><\/p>\n

Wednesday, December 14th<\/strong><\/span>
\n 12:00pm – 12:45pm<\/strong><\/span>
\n Paley Library Lecture Hall<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Come for the fun! Come for the coffee! \u00a0(…and pastries!)<\/span><\/p>\n

Boyer recital credit given.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"1\"<\/span><\/p>\n

On Wednesday, December 14, 2016, Paley Library\u2019s Beyond the Notes concert series is happy to present Johann Sebastian Bach\u2019s (1685-1750) Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht<\/em>, BWV 211, better known as the Coffee Cantata, in a performance featuring Anais Naharro-Murphy and faculty and graduate students of the Boyer College of Music and Dance.<\/p>\n

The term \u201ccantata\u201d came about to describe a \u201csung\u201d piece of music, in contrast to a \u201cplayed\u201d (instrumental) piece which came to be called a sonata. It is most associated with multi-movement works for vocal and instrumental ensembles and soloists used for church services, and no more famous examples of the genre exist than those of Bach. Throughout his career, Bach composed over two hundred cantatas, overwhelmingly for church use but also numerous secular cantatas. Many of these were in honor of particular members of the nobility; the Coffee Cantata has somewhat humbler origins. The Leipzig coffeehouse of Gottfried Zimmermann frequently hosted one of many amateur, middle-class musical associations in German-speaking Europe known as a Collegium Musicum. Their concerts were so popular that Zimmermann needed to charge neither for the use of his property nor for attendance, coffee purchases being sufficient to recoup his expenses.<\/span><\/p>\n

The plot of the Coffee Cantata centers on an overbearing father reproaching his daughter for what he perceives as a coffee addiction. His threats – he won\u2019t let her leave the house, he won\u2019t buy her fashionable new clothing or pretty ribbons for her hat – amount to nothing; she would accept them all for her three glasses of coffee a day. Only when she is threatened with difficulty finding a husband does she relent – on condition that her husband will be contractually obligated to let her have her fill of the drink. Nor was this imagined father alone in his concern; no less a figure than Frederick the Great felt the need to offer his opinion on the popular new beverage: \u201cIt is disgusting to notice the increase in the quantity of coffee used by my subjects, and the like amount of money that goes out of the country in consequence. My people must drink beer\u201d (Mark Pendergast, Uncommon Grounds,<\/em> 2010, p. 11).<\/span><\/p>\n

Beyond the Notes<\/em> is supported by\u00a0the Boyer College, Temple University Libraries, and the Presidential Humanities and Arts Research fund.<\/span><\/p>\n

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